Advice Needed on Taylor Wimpey

Mr_Thrifty

littlesparkles wrote: »

Yikes. I am considering buying a Taylor Wimpey new build home. I know that this forum post was started a while ago so does anyone have recent experiences with them to share? My friend is a few months ahead of me in the buying process with them and so far so good but her house isn't built yet so obviously we have no idea about quality, snagging, after-sales etc... The house I am looking at is a TW townhouse. The price appears to be good and we are being offered a good range of incentives. They have already sold around 12 of this house type on the site and some went for 30k more at the start of the build. There are only 7 more of this house type to be built after the one I am looking at.

I would be interested to hear about recent experiences - particularly in the North East - and also about the costs of extras.
My essentials list is:
turfed garden
outside tap
shower over the bath (and tiled walls)
upgraded kitchen
upgraded hob and oven

My would be nice list is:
integrated kitchen appliances (washing machine and dishwasher only, want the fridge to be freestanding).
doorbell
alarm
light at back of house (garden) - is this possible?
built in wardrobes as the house has pretty much no storage cupboards (or is it cheaper to get a company in to do this later?)

Anything else I have forgotten?

Well, seeing as you seem to be including the very basics in your list (such as doorbell and shower), I recommend also that you ensure you have:

• a front door
• internal doors
• painted walls
• some windows (ideally 1 in each room)
• electrical sockets
• TV point
• boiler
• if applicable, a chimney

littlesparkles

Yes it is pretty tight of Taylor Wimpey to charge £85 for a doorbell... Perhaps I should check that doors are included... ;-)

I have now reserved a Taylor Wimpey house so wish me luck.

petalfairy

littlesparkles wrote: »

Yes it is pretty tight of Taylor Wimpey to charge £85 for a doorbell... Perhaps I should check that doors are included... ;-)

I have now reserved a Taylor Wimpey house so wish me luck.

All you get with new build is expensive everything and negative equity from day one. If you needed to sell the house in the next few years, you would not see your money back.

I do wish you luck and hope you don't have problems with your new home. Most of all I hope you don't have to sell it for some time, because you will be paying too much for what is is, regardless of what it is.

ap19

I wouldn't advise anyone to buy a TW home. I bought a new build apartment from them last year and 12months on am still having major problems with damp and mould. Whereas TW have at last ripped out the carpets and disposed of my mould/damp ridden bed and installed dehumidifiers , I still have no-where to sleep. TW customer services are un-cooperative to say the least, they dont respond to emails or calls and appear to be most uncaring. The production manager suggested I could 'sleep on the sofa for another few weeks'.
My advice to anyone looking at a TW home...don't believe the sales blurb and look elsewhere. I would sell up if I could but the state my apartment is in I have no chance of selling.

epskie

When we first started looking around 2 years ago we viewed some TW showhomes on the coast in our town (South Shields) The whole thing was a horrible experience - the lady in the sales office was 'hard sell' in the worst possible way (rude and forceful!)

We considered buying one of the townhouses for approximately 2 minutes. 2 months ago we found out that they have sold 2/3 of the development to Housing Association - lucky escape.

note_2

wouldnt go anywhere near any new build.

was talking to one of the people in the know about new builds (building merchants supplier i think), of all the leading national housebuilders, all apart from 1 (wont say as i'll be accused of advertising) put the cheapest, crappiest fittings money can buy in the houses.

add in the fact that they're usually in a crappy location with a garden the size of a postage stamp and you get why i'll never go near one.

SuzieSue

note wrote: »

wouldnt go anywhere near any new build.

was talking to one of the people in the know about new builds (building merchants supplier i think), of all the leading national housebuilders, all apart from 1 (wont say as i'll be accused of advertising) put the cheapest, crappiest fittings money can buy in the houses.

.

Which one doesn't put in the cheapest fittings? Could you send me a pm?

note_2

done.....

Modeler

We are buying a TW home; it isn't finished yet but we've seen the plot and there was a good deal on the table. It's interesting to note people's experiences here and there seem to be a lot of haters.

So far our experience has been good, as far as dealing with the company goes. This is my first new-build; we expect a few teething problems and will no doubt post here if there's anything significant.

All this talk of negative equity is a worry, but I can honestly say the new build is quite a bit cheaper than many of the existing homes in the area (asking prices are so damn high right now, no wonder the market is so flat). My first home (which we will be renting out) was built in 1969 by a local building firm and had to get the following done over ten long years:

Had asbestos removed from the garage
Replaced both exterior doors (both are really poor quality)
Replaced all interior doors
All new windows
New garage door
New soffits and facias
Replace boiler with combi
New fences front and rear
Hard landscaping and retaining wall to rear (now collapsing after one year)
New kitchen
Replace loft and cavity wall insulation

I'm not stupid, I only dealt with (so I thought) reputable tradesmen. I'm now going out of my mind trying to get at least one local builder to return a phone call. They don't seem to want the work. I have spent thousands upon thousands on this bloody hovel and it's still not right.

Bring on the new build!

Leew1231

I bought a TW home and was very happy with it. It had quite a bit of snagging, in fact my list was pretty exhaustive but being a building surveyor it was always going to be. They came and fixed them all, no questions asked, no problems.

As for extra's, some are a complete rip-off, some are good value. I did find the appliances to be cheaper than anywhere I could get them at the time. Do your homework.

I wanted spotlights, wanting about 85 they were going to cost about 4k. I got an electrician friend to come in 2 Sunday mornings. He got me the lights and I paid him 250. He was a friend and I had to patch up after but I saved a hell of a lot of money doing it that way.